Alice Cooper - Wolverhampton Civic Hall 3rd July 2003
Setlist: Intro - Sun Arise / Hello! Hooray! / No More Mr Nice Guy / Billion Dollar Babies / Long Way To Go / Public Animal #9 / Be My Lover / Lost in America / Serious / Desperado / Poison / Halo Of Flies - Drum Solo / Welcome To My Nightmare / Cold Ethyl / Only Women Bleed / Ballad Of Dwight Frye / Guilty / Schools Out // Eighteen / Elected / Disgraceland / Under My Wheels
One Saturday afternoon, back in the early 70s, I remember being in the cellar, scraping ice out of a chest freezer, listening to Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman’s radio show and he played something that changed my life forever: Hello! Hooray! It was the first Alice Cooper track I ever consciously heard and it got me hooked. I asked my cousin, who was a few years older than me, if he knew anything about this Alice Cooper character. He knew all about Alice and relayed stories of billion dollar dead babies, blood, swords, guillotines and headless chickens; that definitely sounded like my kind of thing.
However, being only ten at the time, my gig-going days were a few years in the future, and my parents were not the likeliest candidates for taking their only son to a rock concert. No. My parents were not musically inclined. They never listened to any music that I was aware of. I had the obligatory cheap transistor radio, which was strapped to my ear at every opportunity; Fluff on a Saturday; the chart rundown on Tuesday lunchtime; ‘Big L’ under the bedclothes at night. That was how you discovered music in the 70s. Radio Luxembourg at night; listening carefully, trying to extract every bit of sound you could from the cheap, tinny speaker, whilst the sound phased in and out, and CCS was replaced by some lamb-burning, snail-eating- ffrench nonce, raving about Johnny Halliday, or whining about garlic rationing, or something. I wonder if that is why I hate the ffrench so much? It was always a ffrench radio station that made Fab 208 disappear just at the best bit…
One Saturday afternoon, back in the early 70s, I remember being in the cellar, scraping ice out of a chest freezer, listening to Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman’s radio show and he played something that changed my life forever: Hello! Hooray! It was the first Alice Cooper track I ever consciously heard and it got me hooked. I asked my cousin, who was a few years older than me, if he knew anything about this Alice Cooper character. He knew all about Alice and relayed stories of billion dollar dead babies, blood, swords, guillotines and headless chickens; that definitely sounded like my kind of thing.
However, being only ten at the time, my gig-going days were a few years in the future, and my parents were not the likeliest candidates for taking their only son to a rock concert. No. My parents were not musically inclined. They never listened to any music that I was aware of. I had the obligatory cheap transistor radio, which was strapped to my ear at every opportunity; Fluff on a Saturday; the chart rundown on Tuesday lunchtime; ‘Big L’ under the bedclothes at night. That was how you discovered music in the 70s. Radio Luxembourg at night; listening carefully, trying to extract every bit of sound you could from the cheap, tinny speaker, whilst the sound phased in and out, and CCS was replaced by some lamb-burning, snail-eating- ffrench nonce, raving about Johnny Halliday, or whining about garlic rationing, or something. I wonder if that is why I hate the ffrench so much? It was always a ffrench radio station that made Fab 208 disappear just at the best bit…
So, Wolverhampton Civic Hall. My first time at this particular venue. Why? Why have I not been there before? A great crowd, a superb venue and one of the best shows of this year. After seeing last year’s Monsters of Rock show at Manchester ENA, which also featured Alice, I vowed never to attend another arena gig at that hell-hole. The bands were fine but the venue sucks major ass. It would take a very big incentive to get me inside one of those cattle sheds again.
Before I get to Alice, let me mention The Darkness. The Darkness. OK, that’s done. Only kidding, they were great. The Darkness are not original, per se, but they are an uncommon mixture of all things rock. They’re a cock-rocking, plank-spanking, bare-chested, tight-trousered package of all of the rock stereotypes that you can think of. In that respect there is nothing here that you have not seen before, but I’d be surprised if you’ve seen it all on the same stage, at the same time before. Now, I admit that I only first hear of this band a week before seeing them live. I liked what I heard straight away and, furthermore, they rocked live, even though I knew none of their material. For a band to get your foot tapping when you’ve never heard of them before is quite an achievement and shows that there is something there worth finding out about.
What you get with The Darkness is a decidedly odd, yet worthwhile combination. My first thoughts led me to think of a few bands that they reminded me of. Firstly, something screamed Peter Frampton at me and then, probably due to the incredible falsetto of singer, Justin Hawkins, more than anything else, Focus came to mind. If you like early Aerosmith, AC/DC’s Bon Scott years, Humble Pie and that sort of thing, then you’ll probably want to buy The Darkness’ new CD. If I said that this band was cryogenically frozen in 1972 and was just thawed out last week, especially to play good solid rock music, untainted by the tragic 80s and 90s production and poodle perms, then you would probably listen and say: “Yeah, that sounds about right!” Forget the hype in the music press, just listen and enjoy.
Before I get to Alice, let me mention The Darkness. The Darkness. OK, that’s done. Only kidding, they were great. The Darkness are not original, per se, but they are an uncommon mixture of all things rock. They’re a cock-rocking, plank-spanking, bare-chested, tight-trousered package of all of the rock stereotypes that you can think of. In that respect there is nothing here that you have not seen before, but I’d be surprised if you’ve seen it all on the same stage, at the same time before. Now, I admit that I only first hear of this band a week before seeing them live. I liked what I heard straight away and, furthermore, they rocked live, even though I knew none of their material. For a band to get your foot tapping when you’ve never heard of them before is quite an achievement and shows that there is something there worth finding out about.
What you get with The Darkness is a decidedly odd, yet worthwhile combination. My first thoughts led me to think of a few bands that they reminded me of. Firstly, something screamed Peter Frampton at me and then, probably due to the incredible falsetto of singer, Justin Hawkins, more than anything else, Focus came to mind. If you like early Aerosmith, AC/DC’s Bon Scott years, Humble Pie and that sort of thing, then you’ll probably want to buy The Darkness’ new CD. If I said that this band was cryogenically frozen in 1972 and was just thawed out last week, especially to play good solid rock music, untainted by the tragic 80s and 90s production and poodle perms, then you would probably listen and say: “Yeah, that sounds about right!” Forget the hype in the music press, just listen and enjoy.
Alice? You probably thought I’d forgotten, didn’t you? I hadn’t forgotten Alice.No, I always bring everything back to Alice...
As the lights went out and the strains of Sun Arise came through the PA, I looked at the stage, for the first time. Pointless really, seeing as how dark it was in there. But, that aside, this being a smaller venue, this was one of the stripped-down, nothing-but-the-music Alice Cooper shows. Personally, I am fine with that. The first time I saw Alice live was back on the Special Forces tour, which was also a pared down stage show. Mind you, all things are relative. With a no-frills Alice Cooper stage show, you still get that sexy little minx, Calico, prancing around in her naughty nurse outfit; you get a snake; you get the swords and the money; you get dolls and mannequins; if that wasn’t enough, you still get 90 minutes of great music, let’s not forget that.
The thing that surprised me most was that the setlist was completely different to when the Dragontown Phase 2 tour was here, some seven months ago. Not just a shifted about set, this was a totally different selection of songs (well as totally different as you can get when you have to play certain songs or get lynched.)
The set was a beautiful selection of material from the early years, played quite authentically, too, I thought, especially Halo of Flies. I have been surprised that so little of Brutal Planet or Dragontown has been played in the last two tours, yet so many of the old songs have turned up. You could have slapped me with a kipper when they played Long Way To Go, Public Animal #9 and Be My Lover. Of course, if you had slapped me with a kipper, pleased and surprised as I was by the choice of tracks, I would have smacked you one. I was also chuffed as a chocolate frog to hear Serious, a song I have always felt was an overlooked classic, as well as one of the best tracks from Dragontown, Disgraceland, which popped up as an encore, with Alice doing his Elvis impersonation, complete with gold lame jacket and hip-wiggling.
Of course, certain songs will always form the bulk of the set. That goes without saying and should not exactly come as a shock. What makes it interesting is the tracks that go in around the obligatory tunes. What you have here, in the strange case of Alice Cooper, is some careful thought over which songs will fit into the proceedings. Which songs will people want to hear that they aren’t expecting? How best to provide variety and still cover a thirty year career? These are obviously things that have been considered long and hard, in order to give the fans the best possible value for their ticket money.
Alice may be getting older, but he hasn’t lost his touch. In spite of his advancing years and the fact that much of the set is thirty years old, he is still believable and the old songs sound as fresh as ever, slipping right in beside the newer material with ease. Each Alice Cooper tour I have seen has been very different, visually and musically, but each one has been special. An Alice Cooper show with, or without, the full stage show is an experience and an opportunity to see it should never be missed.
I say ‘Bye’, Granny says ‘Bye’ and the snake says ‘Ssssss’.
Mark L. Potts
The God of Thunder
5th July 2003
Of course, certain songs will always form the bulk of the set. That goes without saying and should not exactly come as a shock. What makes it interesting is the tracks that go in around the obligatory tunes. What you have here, in the strange case of Alice Cooper, is some careful thought over which songs will fit into the proceedings. Which songs will people want to hear that they aren’t expecting? How best to provide variety and still cover a thirty year career? These are obviously things that have been considered long and hard, in order to give the fans the best possible value for their ticket money.
Alice may be getting older, but he hasn’t lost his touch. In spite of his advancing years and the fact that much of the set is thirty years old, he is still believable and the old songs sound as fresh as ever, slipping right in beside the newer material with ease. Each Alice Cooper tour I have seen has been very different, visually and musically, but each one has been special. An Alice Cooper show with, or without, the full stage show is an experience and an opportunity to see it should never be missed.
I say ‘Bye’, Granny says ‘Bye’ and the snake says ‘Ssssss’.
Mark L. Potts
The God of Thunder
5th July 2003
About the photos...
Oh, come on, even I can see that there are way too many photos here. The thing is, you see, I just take so many because, sure as eggs is eggs, when you're snapping from the crowd, you're bound to get the moron in front (which, in this case, happened to be mine own offspring!) sticking their sweaty, little trotter straight in front of the lens the second you press the shutter release. Also, I tend to take a series, close together, every so often, just so as I catch the moment.
But, I notice that I am taking fewer crap pictures, these days and I'm waiting for certain shots, more often, rather than just pointing and shooting.
I suppose I could just restrict myself to just a few shots on the page... but that hell, I've taken them, I may as well put 'em up! It's not as though I've got a restriction on space on my ISP's server - they provide me with unlimited space, I'm gonna use it!